Posted on 05/02/2022 11:25:37 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart” (Proverbs 3:3 KJV).
“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee,” don’t let them get away from you. They’ll try. Well, it isn’t so much that they will try, but it’s hard for the flesh to keep them. Mercy and truth. James has the best statement about mercy, “For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment” (James 2:13 KJV). That is to say, if you want God to judge you unmercifully, then you judge others unmercifully. When you judge others, unsaved people or carnal Christians, whatever the situation, if you are unmerciful in your judgment, then you will be judged with the same judgment. Just be merciful—be full of mercy. Be really careful about it.
Just remember, when we look at a Christian, and we judge that Christian, and we say, “Boy, is he a reprobate!” You just remember that inside that Christian is the Holy Spirit of God, and the spirit of that believer that is not sinning, and if he that spirit were having its way—that Christian might be living a better and holier life than you or I. The problem is that the flesh has the upper hand.
What you are seeing is not that Christian, you are seeing the old nature—the Adamic, carnal nature—you are not looking at that Christian’s spirit. The Christian is “in Christ,” that part is totally submerged and does not shine through when the flesh is in control. So, remember when you judge a Christian for what he is doing, it is really the flesh that you are looking at. In every one of us the Christian is inside wanting to do right, whether we do right or not. There’s a drive to do right in every Christian, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (Romans 7:15 KJV). There was a time when Paul struggled with that very thing.
If that spiritual nature is not fed, and it’s not cultivated, it will lose control and the carnal nature will take over.
How about truth? “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, [which what?] which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (I Thessalonians 2:13 KJV).
If you reject Christ on the cross, you force God to express His justice, righteousness and holiness in your condemnation. If you accept Christ on the cross, you give God the opportunity of expressing all His attributes, including His love and compassion and mercy, in your salvation for time and eternity.
— A. C. Dixon in The Glories of the Cross
As much as you can, “. . . let not mercy and truth forsake thee.”
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Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
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